Last September (2011) the county coroner was called to Germantown Hills, Illinois where he found the state police and emergency workers on the scene of a motorcycle accident involving a 32-year-old woman who had been thrown from her bike. This young woman was a single mother of two and a regular rider with a local chapter of the Outlaws motorcycle club. Unfortunately, adding to the tragic loss of her death was the lack of respect afforded to other single mothers who die tragically, simply because she was associated with the Outlaws.
When you dig a little deeper into this story you discover that the woman was part of a ride organized by the local Outlaws chapter to raise money for a Christmas party for disadvantaged children. What prompted her to participate was the fact that two children she knew would be beneficiaries of the Christmas party; two children who happened to be orphans after both of their parents were killed in a motorcycle accident just a month earlier. It was one of those tragic "circle of life" things most of us only read about in newspapers.
The point of all this is to show the human side of motorcycle riders. Despite the fact that the Outlaws club patch features a skull and crossed pistons, these are people who have jobs, get married, and have kids just like you and I. They are also people who care enough to get involved in a number of charitable causes every year. While it may be true that some individual bikers are unsavory, it's not fair to hold that over the entire group. Today there are four children in the Peoria, Illinois area without parents. Remember that motorcycle club members have families too, no matter what their club patches look like.
